Unit – I
Introducing PHP
What Is PHP ?
·
PHP
is a programming language for building dynamic, interactive Web sites.
·
PHP
programs run on a Web server, and serve Web pages to visitors on request.
·
One
of the key features of PHP is that you can embed PHP code within HTML Web
pages, making it very easy for you to create dynamic content quickly.
·
A
dynamic Web page is a page whose contents can change automatically each
time the page is viewed.
·
Astatic
Web page, such as a simple HTML file, which looks the same each time it ’ s
displayed .
·
PHP
stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor.
·
PHP
is a server - side scripting language , which means that PHP scripts, or
programs, usually run on a Web server.
·
PHP
is an interpreted language — a PHP script is processed by the PHP engine
each time it ’ s run.
The process of running a PHP script
on a Web server looks like this:
1. A visitor requests a Web page by
clicking a link, or typing the page ’ s URL into the browser ’ s address bar.
The visitor might also send data to the Web server at the same time, either
using a form embedded in a Web page, or via AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript And
XML).
2. The Web server recognizes that
the requested URL is a PHP script, and instructs the PHP engine to process and
run the script.
3. The script runs, and when it ’ s
finished it usually sends an HTML page to the Web browser, which the visitor
then sees on their screen.
A PHP script can carry out any
number of interesting tasks, such as:
·
Reading
and processing the contents of a Web form sent by the visitor
·
Reading,
writing, and creating files on the Web server
·
Working
with data in a database stored on the Web server
·
Grabbing
and processing data from other Web sites and feeds
·
Generating
dynamic graphics, such as charts and manipulated photos
And finally, once it ’ s finished
processing, it can send a customized HTML Web page back to the visitor.
Why Use PHP ?
·
PHP
is cross - platform .
·
PHPsupports
large number of Internet service providers (ISPs) and Webhosting companies .
·
PHP
engine can integrate with all common Web servers, including Apache, Internet
Information Server (IIS), Zeus, and lighttpd.
PHP compare with other common Web
programming technologies:
ASP (Active Server Pages) ,ASP.NET ,Perl
,Java ,Python ,Ruby ,ColdFusion
The Evolution of PHP
PHP was created byRasmus Lerdorf way
back in 1994. He released PHP to the general public in 1995, and called it PHP
version 2.
In 1997, two more developers, Zeev
Suraski and Andi Gutmans, rewrote most of PHP and, along withRasmus, released
PHP version 3.0 in June 1998.
For the next version of PHP, Zeev
and Andi set about rewriting the PHP core yet again, calling it the“ Zend
Engine ” (basing the name “ Zend ” on their two names). The new version, PHP 4,
was launched inMay 2000.
PHP 5, released in July 2004,
addressed some issues, withprivate and protected class members; final, private,
protected, and static methods; abstract classes;interfaces; and a standardized
constructor/destructor syntax.
Installing PHP
To create and run PHP scripts, you
need to have a few things in place:
·
A
computer running Web server software, such as Apache or Internet Information
Server (IIS)
·
The
PHP server module installed on the same computer. This module talks to the Web
serversoftware; this is the PHP engine that actually does the work of running
your PHP scripts
·
If
you want to build database - driven Web applications — and you probably will —
you alsoneed a database server installed. Options include MySQL, PostgreSQL,
and SQL Server.
For example, operating systems that
can run PHP include Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X,and Web server software
includes Apache, IIS, and Zeus.
Installing on Windows
PHP on Windows can work with Apache
or IIS. WampServer(Windows, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) this handy piece of software
gives you Apache,MySQL, and PHP all in one handy, easy - to - install package.
To install WampServer, follow these
steps:
1. Download the latest version of
WampServer from http://www.wampserver.com/en/ .
2. Open the WampServer .exe file
that you downloaded, and follow the instructions on the screen to install the
application.
3. Unblock Apache. As you run the
installer, you may be asked if you want to allow Apache through the Windows
Firewall. If you want to allow other computers onyour network to access the Web
server, click Unblock. If you ’ re only going to access the Webserver from a
browser on the same computer, you can click Keep Blocking to improve security.
4. Enter default mail settings.
During the configuration process you ’ ll also be asked to enter a default mail
server and email address for PHP to use (Figure 3.1 ); you can accept the
defaults for now.
5.Once the setup wizard has
completed, you should see a WampServer icon in your taskbar; click this icon to
display the WampServer menu . Choose the Start All Services option to fire up
the Apache and MySQL servers.
6. To test that the Web server is
running correctly, choose the Localhost option from the WampServer menu. If all
has gone according to plan, you should see the page shown in Figure 3.2 appear;
this means that WampServer was successfully installed. Congratulations !Move on
to the “ Testing Your Installation ” section of this chapter to make sure
everything is working OK.
Testing Your
Installation
Now that you ’ ve
installed Apache, PHP, and MySQL on your computer, you ’ re ready to test the
installation .
Testing the Web
Server
The first thing to do
is to create a simple HTML Web page for testing. In a text editor such as
Notepad for Windows, TextEdit on the Mac, or vi/emacs/pico on Linux, create the
following simple Web page:
<html>
<head>
<title>Testing</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Testing, testing,
1-2-3</h1>
</body>
</html>
Call the Web page testing.html and
save it in your Web server ’ s document root folder on your hard drive.
·
If
you ’ ve installed Apache on Ubuntu Linux, the document root folder is probably
/var/www.
·
With
WampServer on Windows, the document root folder is usually in C:\wamp\www.
·
So
save your testing.html file to the appropriate folder, and then open a Web
browser and type the following into its address bar:
Testing PHP
Open your text editor again, and
create a new file with the following contents:
< ?php
phpinfo();
? >
Save this file as testing.php in the
same folder as your testing.html file — that is to say, the document root
folder. Now type the following into your Web browser ’ s address bar .
http://localhost/testing.php
Press Enter, This is the result of
running the phpinfo() function, a built - in PHP function that displays
information about the version of PHP that ’ s installed. This means that you
have successfully installed both Apache and PHP.
Creating Your First Script
< ?php
echo “Hello, world!”;
? >
Save
this file as hello.php in your document root folder, and view the results in
your browser byvisiting http://localhost/hello.php.
<
?php
By
using the PHP delimiter, < ?php, you ’ re telling the PHP engine to treat
anything following the < ?php as PHP code, rather than as HTML. The first line
tells that PHP can be embedded within HTML Web pages.
The
next line displays the message “ Hello, world! ” :
echo
“Hello, world!”;
PHP
’ s echo() can display anything that can be displayed, such as numbersor the
results of expressions.
In
this case, “Hello, world!” .
An
alternative to echo()
is the print() statement.
The
final line of your simple script tells the PHP engine that it ’ s reached the
end of the current section ofPHP code, and that the following lines (if any)
contain plain HTML again:
?
>
Embedding
PHP within HTML
<html>
<head>
<title>Hello</title>
<link rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css”
href=”common.css” />
</head>
<body>
<h1><?php echo “Hello, world!”;
?></h1>
</body>
</html>
common.css
/* Page body */
body { font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, sans-serif; }
/* Headings */
h1 { font-weight: bold; margin: 35px
0 14px; color: #666; font-size: 1.5em; }
Run
your new PHP script by typing http://localhost/hello_pretty.php
Using
Comments to Make Code More Readable
single
- line comment
//
This code displays the current time
#
This code displays the current time
multi
- line comments
/*This
code displays the
current
time in a nice,
easy-to-read
format.
*/
PHP
Language Basics
·
Variables
, which let you
store and manipulate data in your scripts
·
Data
types , including
which types are available in PHP, and how to test for and change type
·
PHP
’ s available operators , which you can use to manipulate information
·
Constants , which are useful for storing data
that doesn’ t change in your script.
Using
Variables in PHP
A variable
is simply a container that holds a certain value. Variables get their name
because that certain value can change throughout the execution of the script.
Naming
Variables
A
variable consists of two parts: the variable ’ s name and the variable ’ s
value.
·
Variable
names begin with a dollar sign ( $ )
·
The
first character after the dollar sign must be a letter or an underscore
·
The
remaining characters in the name may be letters, numbers, or underscores
without a fixed limit
·
Variable
names are case - sensitive ( $Variable and $variable are two distinct
variables)
Here
are some examples of PHP variable names:
$my_first_variable
$anotherVariable
$x
$_123
Creating
Variables
Creating
a variable in PHP is known as declaring it. Declaring a variable is as
simple as using its name in your script:
$my_first_variable;
Here
’ s an example of declaring and initializing a variable:
$my_first_variable
= 3;
$x
= 5;
$y
= 6;
echo
$x + $y; // outputs their sum ( 11 ):
Understanding Data Types
PHP
supports four scalar data types. Scalar data means data that contains
only a single value. Here ’ s a list of them,
PHP supports two compound types. Compound data is data that can contain more than one value. The following table describes PHP ’ s compound types,PHP supports two special data types.
About
Loose Typing
PHP converts a variable ’ s data type
automatically, depending on the context in which the variable is used. For
example, you can initialize a variable with an integer value; add a float value
to it, thereby turning it into a float; then join it onto a string value to
produce a longer string.
Testing
the Type of a Variable
You
can determine the type of a variable at any time by using PHP ’ s gettype()
function. To use gettype() , pass in the variable whose type you want to test.
The function then returns the variable ’ s type as a string.
$test_var; // Declares the $test_var variable without initializing
it
echo gettype( $test_var ) . “ <br/> ”; // Displays “NULL”
$test_var = 15;
echo gettype( $test_var ) . “ <br/> ”; // Displays “integer”
$test_var = 8.23;
echo gettype( $test_var ) . “ <br/> ”; // Displays “double”
$test_var = “Hello, world!”;
echo gettype( $test_var ) . “ <br/> ”; // Displays “string”
Changing
a Variable ’ s Data Type
Use
PHP ’ s settype() function to change the type of a variable while preserving
the variable ’ s value as much as possible. To use settype() , pass in the name
of the variable you want to alter, followed by the type to change the variable
to (in quotation marks).
Here
’ s some example code that converts a variable to various different types using
settype() :
$test_var = 8.23;
echo $test_var . “ <br/> ”; //
Displays “8.23”
settype( $test_var, “string” );
echo $test_var . “ <br/> ”; //
Displays “8.23”
settype( $test_var, “integer” );
echo $test_var . “ <br/> ”; //
Displays “8”
settype( $test_var, “float” );
echo $test_var . “ <br/> ”; //
Displays “8”
settype( $test_var, “boolean” );
echo $test_var . “<br/>”// Displays “1” (PHP
converts a non - zero number to the Boolean value true.)
Changing
Type by Casting
You can also cause a variable ’ s
value to be treated as a specific type using a technique known as type
casting . This involves placing the name of the desired data type in
parentheses before the variable ’ s name. Note that the variable itself remains
unaffected; this is in contrast to settype() , which changes the variable ’ s
type.
$test_var = 8.23;
echo $test_var . “ <br/> ”; // Displays “8.23”
echo (string) $test_var . “ <br/> ”; // Displays “8.23”
echo (int) $test_var . “ <br/> ”; // Displays “8”
echo (float) $test_var . “ <br/> ”; // Displays “8.23”
echo (boolean) $test_var . “ <br/> ”; // Displays “1”
Note
that $test_var ’ s type isn ’ t changed at any point; it remains a floating -
point variable, containing the value 8.23 , at all times. All that changes is
the type of the data that ’ s passed to the echo statement.
Operators
and Expressions
Arithmetic
Operators
For example, $c = $a + $b adds $a and $b
and
assigns the result to $c .
The basic assignment operator ( = ) can be used to
assign a value to a variable:
$test_var = 8.23;
$another_var = $test_var = 8.23;
So both $test_var and $another_var now contain the
value 8.23
For example, you can write:
$first_number += $second_number;
rather than:
$first_number = $first_number + $second_number;
For
example, the concatenation operator can be combined with the equals sign (as .=
), causing the value on the right side to beappended to the existing value on
the left, like this:
$a = “Start a sentence “;
$b = “and finish it.”;
$a .= $b; // $a now contains “ Start a sentence and
finish it. ”
Bitwise
Operators
Incrementing
/Decrementing Operators
Oftentimes
it ’ s useful to add or subtract the value 1 (one) over and over.
++$x; //
Adds one to $x and then returns the result
$x++; //
Returns $x and then adds one to it
– - $x; //
Subtracts one from $x and then returns the result
$x – - ; //
Returns $x and then subtracts one from it
The
location of the operators makes a difference. Placing the operator before the
variable name causes the variable ’ s value to be incremented or decremented
before the value is returned; placing the operator after the variable name
returns the current value of the variable first, then adds or subtracts one from
the variable. For example:
$x
= 5;
echo
++$x; // Displays “6” (and $x now contains 6)
$x
= 5;
echo
$x++; // Displays “5” (and $x now contains 6)
Comparison
Operators
If
the comparison test is successful, the expression evaluates to true ;
otherwise, it evaluates to false .
Logical
Operators
PHP
’ s logical operators work on Boolean values. Boolean value is either true or
false . PHP automatically evaluates expressions as either true or false.
Here
are some simple examples of logical operators in action:
$x = 2;
$y = 3;
echo ( ($x > 1) && ($x < 5) ) . “ <br/>
”; // Displays 1 (true)
echo ( ($x == 2) or ($y == 0) ) . “ <br/> ”; // Displays 1 (true)
echo ( ($x == 2) xor ($y == 3) ) . “ <br/> ”; // Displays “” (false) because bothexpressions
are true
echo ( !($x == 5 ) ) . “ <br/> ”; // Displays 1 (true) because$x does not
equal 5
String
Operators
There
’ s really only one string operator, and that ’ s the concatenation operator
, . (dot). This operator simply takes two string values, and joins the right
- hand string onto the left - hand one .
For
example:
echo
“Hello, “ . “How are you”; //
Displays “ Hello, How are you ”
For example, the following two lines of code change the
string variable $x by adding the string variable $y to the end of it.
$x
= $x . $y;
$x
.= $y;
Constants
·
The
values of constants, as their name implies, can never be changed. Constants can
be defined only once in a PHP program.
·
Constants
differ from variables in that their names do not start with the dollar sign,
but other than that they can be named in the same way variables are. However,
it ’ s good practice to use all - uppercase names for constants.
·
To
define a constant, use the define() function, and include inside the
parentheses the name you ’ ve chosen for the constant, followed by the value
for the constant, as shown here:
define(
“MY_CONSTANT”, “19” ); // MY_CONSTANT always has the string value “ 19 ”
echo
MY_CONSTANT; // Displays “ 19 ” (note this is a string, not an integer)
Calculate the Properties of a Circle
< ?php
$radius = 4;
$diameter = $radius * 2;
$circumference = M_PI * $diameter;
$area = M_PI * pow( $radius, 2 );
echo “This circle has... <br/> ”;
echo “A radius of “ . $radius . “ <br/> ”;
echo “A diameter of “ . $diameter . “ <br/> ”;
echo “A circumference of “ . $circumference .“<br/>
”;
echo “An area of “ . $area . “ < br / > ”;
?>
Decisions
and Loops
Making
Decisions
PHP gives you a number of statements that you can use to make decisions:
if Statement
The basic form of an if construct is as follows:
if ( expression
) {
// Run this
code
}
// More code
here
If the expression inside the parentheses evaluates to
true , the code between the braces is run. If the expression evaluates to false
, the code between the braces is skipped.
If-else Statement
You can enhance this decision - making process by
adding an else statement to an if construction. This lets you run one block of
code if an expression is true , and a different block of code if the expression
is false . For example:
elseif Statement
Used to combine an else and an if statement.
switch Statement
Sometimes you want to test an expression against a range of different values, carrying out a different task depending on the value that is matched.
PHP provides a more elegant way to run these types of
tests: the switch statement. With this statement,
you include the expression to test only once, then
provide a range of values to test it against, with corresponding code blocks to
run if the values match.
Doing
Repetitive Tasks with Looping
·
while loops
·
do...while loops
·
for loops
while Statement
while ( expression
) {
// Run this
code
}
// More code
here
The expression inside the parentheses is tested; if it
evaluates to true , the code block inside the braces is run. Then the
expression is tested again; if it ’ s still true , the code block is run again,
and so on. However, if at any point the expression is false , the loop exits
and execution continues with the line after the closing brace.
< ?php
$mobilesLeft
= 10;
while ( $mobilesLeft
> 0 ) {
echo
“Selling mobiles... “;
$mobilesLeft
- - ;
echo “done.
There are $mobilesLeft mobiles left. <br/> ”;
}
echo “We ’
re right out of mobiles!”;
?>
The do . . . while Loop
Sometimes it ’ s useful to be able to run the code in
the loop at least once before checking the expression, and this is exactly what
do...while loops do.
<?php
$width = 1;
$length = 1;
do {
$width++;
$length++;
$area =
$width * $length;
} while (
$area < 1000 );
echo “The
smallest square over 1000 sq ft in area is $width ft x $length ft.”;
?>
The for Statement
The for statement is a bit more complex than do and
do...while , but it ’ s a neat and compact way to
write certain types of loops.
for (
expression1; expression2; expression3 ) {
// Run this
code
}
// More code
here
For loop can contain three expressions. These
expressions, in order, are:
The initializer expression — This is run just
once, when the for statement is first encountered.Typically, it ’ s used to
initialize a counter variable (for example, $counter = 1 )
The loop test expression — This fulfils the
same purpose as the single expression in a do ordo...while loop. If this
expression evaluates to true , the loop continues; if it ’ s false , the
loopexits. An example of a loop test expression would be $counter < = 10
The counting expression — This expression is
run after each iteration of the loop, and is usuallyused to change the counter
variable — for example, $counter++
for ( $i =
1; $i < = 10; $i++ ) {
echo “I ’ ve
counted to: $i <br/> ”;
}
echo “All
done!”;
Escaping from Loops with the break Statement
Normally, a while , do...while , or for loop will
continue looping as long as its test expression evaluates to true . However,
you can exit a loop at any point while the loop ’ s executing by using the
break statement.
$count = 0;
while ( true ) {
$count++;
echo “I ’ ve counted to: $count < br / > ”;
if ( $count == 10 ) break;
}
Skipping Loop Iterations with the continue Statement
Continue lets you prematurely end the current
iterationof a loop and move onto the next iteration. This can be useful if you
want to skip the current item of datayou ’ re working with; maybe you don ’ t
want to change or use that particular data item, or maybe thedata item can ’ t
be used for some reason .
for ( $i=1; $i < = 10; $i++ ) {
if ( $i == 4 ) continue;
echo “I ’ ve counted to: $i < br / > ”;
}
echo “All done!”;
Creating
Nested Loops
There ’ s nothing to stop you creating a loop inside
another loop.
Mixing
Decisions and Looping with HTML
We can switch between displaying HTML markup and
executing PHP code byusing the < ?php ... ? > tags. This feature really
comes into its own with decisions and looping, because you can use PHP to
control which sections of a Web page are displayed.
<html
xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml” xml:lang=”en” lang=”en” >
<head>
<title>
Even or Odd Number</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
for ($i =
1;$i <= 100;$l++)
{
if
($i%2 == 0)
{
echo
"<br>$i is Even number";
}
else {
echo
"<br> $i is Odd Number";
}
}
?>
</body>
</html>
Save this file as EvenOdd.php in your document root
folder and running the script in your browser.
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